Thilina D. Surasinghe

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• PhD
• Professor (Full) at Bridgewater State University

The Blue Ridge and Piedmont of the southeastern United States are rich in biodiversity and have undergone centuries of extensive deforestation and subsequent urbanization resulting in geomorphic landscape changes. To investigate the impacts of past and present land uses on stream salamander communities across both ecoregions, we surveyed streams as...

Cities can host significant biological diversity. Yet, urbanisation leads to the loss of habitats, species, and functional groups. Understanding how multiple taxa respond to urbanisation globally is essential to promote and conserve biodiversity in cities. Using a dataset encompassing six terrestrial faunal taxa (amphibians, bats, bees, birds, cara...

The three‐dimensional (3D) physical aspects of ecosystems are intrinsically linked to ecological processes. Here, we describe structural diversity as the volumetric capacity, physical arrangement, and identity/traits of biotic components in an ecosystem. Despite being recognized in earlier ecological studies, structural diversity has been largely o...

Forest structural diversity and its spatiotemporal variability are constrained by environmental and biological factors, including species pools, climate, land‐use history, and legacies of disturbance regimes. These factors influence forest responses to disturbances and their interactions with structural diversity, potentially creating structurally...

Biological invasions are among the leading drivers of global biodiversity loss and are responsible for impaired ecosystem structure and function. Underpinning the mechanisms and patterns of biological invasions, particularly how both exotic invasions and native-weed expansion vary across different habitats and variable degrees of human-induced dist...

Wetlands are vital ecosystems that provide diverse ecosystem services. However, their degradation poses an environmental threat globally, impacting human society. Recognizing their economic importance amidst escalating degradation emphasizes the urgent need for wetland conservation. Wetland restoration emerges as a crucial strategy to recover lost...

Circadian rhythms are a mechanism by which species adapt to environmental variability and fundamental to understanding species behavior. However, we lack data and a standardized framework to accurately assess and compare temporal activity for species during rapid ecological change. Through a global network representing 38 countries, we leveraged 8....

Field-based research in the biological sciences encounters several challenges, including cost, accessibility, safety, and spatial coverage. Drones have emerged as a transformative technology to address these challenges while providing a less intrusive alternative to field surveys. Although drones have mainly been used for high-resolution image coll...

Biodiversity loss is a critical global challenge. The Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) sets ambitious goals to protect ecosystems, halt species loss, and enhance biodiversity. The GBF’s Monitoring Framework requires countries to track progress toward biodiversity targets using a standardized set of indicators that summarize comp...

Drones have emerged as a cost‐effective solution to detect and map plant invasions, offering researchers and land managers flexibility in flight design, sensors and data collection schedules. A systematic review of trends in drone‐based image collection, data processing and analytical approaches is needed to advance the science of invasive species...

While there is increasing recognition that social processes in cities like gentrification have ecological consequences, we lack nuanced understanding of the ways gentrification affects urban biodiversity. We analyzed a large camera trap dataset of mammals (>500 g) to evaluate how gentrification impacts species richness and community composition acr...

The measurement of forest structure has evolved steadily due to advances in technology, methodology, and theory. Such advances have greatly increased our capacity to describe key forest structural elements and resulted in a range of measurement approaches from traditional analog tools such as measurement tapes to highly derived and computationally...

Population dynamics of invasive species and their impacts on native communities vary substantially geographically and in different environmental contexts. Therefore, effective management of invasive species requires understanding how habitat characteristics, anthropogenic effects, or other perturbations can influence their abundance and impacts on...

Premise: Effective seed dispersal is essential to the success of plant species. Swida amomum (silky dogwood) has a seed-dispersal syndrome characteristic of autumn-ripening shrubs with fleshy fruits; attached fruits are ingested and defecated by birds, while fallen fruits are consumed by ground-foraging birds and mammals. Methods: We documented...

Understanding patterns and drivers of species distribution and abundance, and thus biodiversity, is a core goal of ecology. Despite advances in recent decades, research into these patterns and processes is currently limited by a lack of standardized, high‐quality, empirical data that span large spatial scales and long time periods. The NEON fills t...

Bats perform critical ecosystem functions, including the pollination, seed dispersal, and regulation of invertebrate populations. Yet, bat populations are declining worldwide primarily due to habitat loss and other anthropogenic stressors. Thus, studies on bat ecology, particularly on environmental determinants of bat occupancy, are paramount to th...

Understanding the drivers of community stability in times of increasing anthropogenic pressure is an urgent issue. Biodiversity is known to promote community stability, but studies of the biodiversity–stability relationship rarely consider the full complexity of biodiversity change. Furthermore, finding generalities that hold across taxonomic group...

Riparian zones are critical for functional integrity of riverscapes and conservation of riverscape biodiversity. The synergism of intermediate flood-induced disturbances, moist microclimates, constant nutrient influx, high productivity, and resource heterogeneity make riparian zones disproportionately rich in biodiversity. Riparian vegetation inter...

Ecological responses of nocturnal predatory birds to forest cover and other geospatial predictors vary both geographically and taxonomically. Considerable knowledge gaps exist regarding the habitat associations of the Sri Lanka Frogmouth, a nocturnal bird restricted to Sri Lanka and the Indian Western Ghats. Via a 20-year island-wide survey, we sea...

Sri Lanka is a global biodiversity hotspot, and also harbour a unique and largely endemic assemblage of reptiles, especially agamid lizards. Twenty (90%) out of the 22 species in the island are endemic and nearly 68% of these are threatened with extinction. Several species are restricted to a single, small range (<100 km 2 ; i.e. micro-endemics). D...

Wetlands perform critical ecological functions and provide wildlife habitats. Yet, wetland degradation continues at a global scale. In Massachusetts, USA, wetland restoration has reached remarkable heights, partly promoted by the retirement of cranberry bogs. In this study, to assess the effectiveness of cranberry-farm restoration for conservation...

It is a critical time to reflect on the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) science to date as well as envision what research can be done right now with NEON (and other) data and what training is needed to enable a diverse user community. NEON became fully operational in May 2019 and has pivoted from planning and construction to operatio...

Providing physical protection to wildlife is among the most high-risk professions in the conservation sector as it is directly associated with the prevention of wildlife crimes. In Sri Lanka, the Department of Wildlife Conservation is the primary government agency responsible for the long-term conservation and protection of biological diversity. Si...

A core goal of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is to measure changes in biodiversity across the 30‐yr horizon of the network. In contrast to NEON’s extensive use of automated instruments to collect environmental data, NEON’s biodiversity surveys are almost entirely conducted using traditional human‐centric field methods. We belie...

Understanding patterns and drivers of species distributions and abundances, and thus biodiversity, is a core goal of ecology. Despite advances in recent decades, research into these patterns and processes is currently limited by a lack of standardized, high-quality, empirical data that spans large spatial scales and long time periods. The National...

Learning from the Restoration of Wetlands on Cranberry Farmland: Preliminary Benefits Assessment

The genus Ceratophora (horn-lizards) comprises six species, all of which are endemic to Sri Lanka. Herein, a new species of Ceratophora is described based on morphological and molecular evidence. The new species is restricted to the Salgala Forest (~300 m asl elevation) in the Kegalle District of Sri Lanka, which is in the northern part of the wet...

During the worldwide shutdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many reports emerged of urban wildlife sightings. While these images garnered public interest and declarations of wildlife reclaiming cities, it is unclear whether wildlife truly reoccupied urban areas or whether there were simply increased detections of urban wildlife during this...

Forest-cover change has become an important topic in global biodiversity conservation in recent decades because of the high rates of forest loss in different parts of the world, especially in the tropical region. While human interventions are the major cause, natural disasters also contribute to forest cover changes. During the past decades, severa...

Kelani River is the fourth longest river in the South-Asian island, Sri Lanka. It originates from the central hills and flows through a diverse array of landscapes, including some of the most urbanized regions and intensive land uses. Kelani River suffers a multitude of environmental issues: illegal water diversions and extractions, impoundment for...

Three new day gecko species of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 are described from three isolated granite cave habitats with rock walls in Bambaragala (Ratnapura District), Dimbulagala (Polonnaruwa District), and Mandaramnuwara (Nuwara-Eliya District) in Sri Lanka based on morphometric and meristic characters. All of these new species are assigned...

The island of Sri Lanka is home to 21 species of draconid lizards including 19 (~90%) endemic species. Nearly 62% of these species are listed as threatened with 7 critically endangered, 5 endangered and 1 vulnerable, however this number may change as conservation status of four species described after 2012 are not assessed. A number of taxonomic re...

Jaffna peninsula is quite an unexplored area of Sri Lanka's lowland dry zone. We constructed a species checklist for all herpetofauna of this area based on a short-term field survey, a comprehensive literature review, museum specimens, and observations made by field herpetologists. Based on 200 × 10 m belt transects, we surveyed herpetofauna both d...

Freshwater accounts for a minor fraction (0.01%) of the global water budget and occupies <1% of Earth's surface, yet supports nearly 10% of known species, including a third of global vertebrate diversity. Freshwater ecosystems constitute a multitude of natural resources that carry socioeconomic , scientific, and educational benefits. Yet, freshwate...

Fish-free ephemeral wetlands are critical for life histories of numerous northern-temperate amphibians as mating and larval development take place in those habitats. Likewise, importance of forested landscapes for pond-breeding amphibians have also been well established. Yet, importance of local-scale habitat features and landscape-scale variations...

In New England, cranberry farming dominated industrial agriculture throughout the 1900s, though outdated farming techniques have caused most of these cranberry farms to be taken out of production. New England’s now-retired cranberry farms were originally built in low-elevation coastal wetlands or by impeding fluvial processes of sluggish high-order...

Bioacoustic surveys have gained popularity in recent years, largely due to their versatility in rapid biodiversity assessments and long-term monitoring. Improved detection probabilities in acoustic surveys provide value in documenting occupancy of ecologically-cryptic, rare, and secretive species. Today the need for such monitoring is paramount, gi...

The day geckos (Cnemaspis) are diminutive, slender-bodied geckos with crepuscular behavior. These geckos are mostly rupicolous with a few being arboreal and ground-dwelling. Most members of this genus have a cryptic morphology and coloration, which help in camouflage. Sri Lankan Cnemaspis clade has undergone much taxonomic revisions, where a number...

The island of Sri Lanka is home to 21 species of draconid lizards including 19 (~90%) endemic species. Nearly 62% of these species are listed as threatened with 7 critically endangered, 5 endangered and 1 vulnerable, however this number may change as conservation status of four species described after 2012 are not assessed. A number of taxonomic re...

Wetlands yield a multitude of environmental benefits, including flood mitigation, water purification, groundwater recharge, carbon sequestration, and providing wildlife habitats. The US have lost over 50% of original wetland acreage due to urbanization and commercial agriculture. In the recent years, wetland restoration has become a cornerstone in...

Evidence from flowing-water habitats has confirmed a role of turtles regarding the effective internal transport and viability of riparian plant seeds. We assessed potential propagule dispersal by Eastern painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) within a small river in Massachusetts and factors that may influence the diversity and abundance of egested prop...

Six new day gecko species of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 are described from geographically isolated forested hills (Bambarabotuwa, Kadugannawa, Kokagala, Kudumbigala, Maragala and Walapane) in Sri Lanka based on analyses of morphological and molecular traits. We provide an updated mtDNA-based genealogy of Sri Lankan Cnemaspis and provide furt...

A new species of Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 is described from Nilgala Savannah Forest in Sri Lanka. The new species is diagnosed from all other congeners by the following suite of characters: small body size (SVL< 33 mm), dorsal scales on trunk homogeneous, one pair of post mentals separated by a single small chin scale, ventral scales on trunk smooth...

Three new day gecko species of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 are described from three isolated granite cave habitats with rock walls in Bambaragala (Ratnapura District), Dimbulagala (Polonnaruwa District), and Mandaramnuwara (Nuwara-Eliya District) in Sri Lanka based on morphometric and meristic characters. All of these new species are assigned...

The Sri Lanka frogmouth (Batrachostomus moniliger) is a small-sized nocturnal bird largely restricted to tropical lowland forests with thick undergrowth. The motionless roosting posture as well as their plumage coloration and color patterns (which resemble that of tree stems and branches) enable them to camouflage and thereby avoid predation. Throu...

The endemic Sri Lankan keelback (Balanophis ceylonensis) is a snake largely restricted to rainforests of the island. Based on an 11-years field survey covering 83 field sites and rescued specimens, we present an autecology of B. ceylonensis. We recorded 32 individuals of B. ceylonensis at 25 field sites. All snakes were found in 10 – 1000 m altitud...

The homalopsid snake Gerarda prevostiana is known from parts of southern Asia and lives in coastal brackish-water habitats. For six years we surveyed 50 such habitats around the coastline of Sri Lanka and recorded the distribution and behaviour of this species. We also observed captive G. prevostiana to understand microhabitat use and behaviour. Du...

Mammalian conservation in Sri Lanka has mostly focused in the protected area network which only covers >30% of the nation's land area. Bats are relatively mobile and their overall fitness depends on landscape-scale features, including habitat suitability both inside and outside protected areas. To study the bat communities outside Sri Lankan conser...

The homalopsid snake Gerarda prevostiana is known from parts of southern Asia and lives in coastal brackish-water habitats. For six years we surveyed 50 such habitats around the coastline of Sri Lanka and recorded the distribution and behaviour of this species. We also observed captive G. prevostiana to understand microhabitat use and behaviour. Du...

Distribution of Kerivoula hardwickii, Hardwicke’s Woolly Bat, in Sri Lanka is restricted to the central highlands and to the northeastern region of the country, and so far, only recorded from four distinct locations. In Sri Lanka, this species was last documented in the year 1994 and no subsequent surveys recorded this species in Sri Lanka, thus co...

In Sri Lanka, there are 31 species of bats distributed from lowlands to mountains. To document bat diversity and their habitat associations, 58 roosting sites in Maduru-Oya National Park periphery were surveyed. Fifteen bat species were recorded occupying 16 different roosting sites in this area. Among all the species recorded, Rhinolophusrouxii wa...

Biodiversity-rich tropical island of Sri Lanka is not isolated from ongoing global-scale biodiversity loss. Declining populations of native fauna and flora can be attributed to a plethora of human activities. Predominantly, such anthropogenic activities involve deforestation, invasive alien species, global environmental change, modifications in nat...

Naja naja is broadly distributed in southern Asia and the only cobra species recorded from Sri Lanka. Throughout its continental Asian range, N. naja varies greatly in color pattern. Herein, we reported a new color morph of a juvenile N. naja in Sri Lanka.

Direct or incidental ingestion of fruits or seeds by freshwater turtles can facilitate seed dispersal within and between bodies of water. Here, we evaluate Chrysemys picta (Eastern painted turtles) as a dispersal mode for hydrophytes and aimed to determine: 1) factors that drive diversity and abundance of egested seeds, 2) if certain regionally-com...

Distribution of Kerivoula hardwickii, Hardwicke's Woolly Bat, in Sri Lanka is restricted to the central highlands and to the northeastern region of the country, and so far, only recorded from four distinct locations. In Sri Lanka, this species was last documented in the year 1994 and no subsequent surveys recorded this species in Sri Lanka, thus co...

The tropical island nation of Sri Lanka is a biodiversity hotspot with a high diversity and endemism of amphibians. The endemic, stream-dwelling Kandian torrent toad Adenomus kandianus is Critically Endangered and was considered to be extinct until its rediscovery in 2012. The species is now known from two localities in tropical montane forests. We...

Rapid expansion of road networks is not uncommon in and around protected areas of Sri Lanka where numerous national parks attract amasses of tourists annually. Therefore, we studied specific taxa/faunal groups susceptible to roadkills, how tourism impacts roadkills, and to provide recommendations to minimize wildlife roadkills in Sri Lanka.

There are 30 species of Chiropterans inhabiting the tropical Indian Oceanic Island of Sri Lanka, many of which are nationally threatened. These 30 species consist of four Megachiropterans and 26 Microchiropterans. Interestingly, despites geographical isolation, Sri Lanka does not possess any endemic Chiropterans. There is a paucity of long-term stu...

The Asian water monitor Varanus salvator is one of the largest species of lizard in the world and is widespread on the island of Sri Lanka. In the present study, we conducted a 7-month survey within a 5-km stretch in the urbanised Attanagalu-Oya river area to study habitat associations, mesohabitat use and behaviour of V. salvator in urban landscap...

Terrapins are integral to many freshwater ecosystems, yet are imperilled at a global scale. In Sri Lanka, terrapins are understudied; thus, much of their natural history and distribution status remain unknown. Such paucity of studies impedes conservation. In this study, 79 freshwater habitats located outside the protected area network of south‐west...

The Bengal monitor (Varanus bengalensis) is the second largest lizard species in Sri Lanka, and is well adapted to living in a variety of terrestrial habitats. Varanus bengalensis is a diurnal generalist predator, but sometimes function as a scavenger. Given the ecological plasticity and generalist foraging strategy of V. bengalensis, its feeding e...

The Bengal monitor (Varanus bengalensis) is the second largest lizard species in Sri Lanka, and is well adapted to living in a variety of terrestrial habitats. Varanus bengalensis is a diurnal generalist predator, but sometimes function as a scavenger. Given the ecological plasticity and generalist foraging strategy of V. bengalensis, its feeding e...

Turtles are integral to freshwater and wetland ecosystem functions as herbivores, carnivores, and scavengers in food webs. Turtles have extensive home ranges and utilize numerous aquatic and woodland habitats to satisfy different life-history requirements; therefore, “fortress conservation” is inadequate in turtle conservation. We investigated popu...

Impacts of roadkills are extensively documented in developed nations. Only a handful of studies on road mortality has emerged from developing nations where tourism and rural development have led to expansion of transportation networks. To fulfill such gaps, we conducted a survey to document roadkills in and around two tourism–heavy national parks o...

Nerodia sipedon (Northern Water Snake [NWS]) inhabits aquatic habitats throughout North America, including eastern North America as well as parts of the Great Plains. NWS is a common, broadly distributed colubrid snake that is considered a habitat generalist. Recent studies have suggested that even common species may suffer population declines or l...

In recent years, many turtle conservationists have initiated headstarting programs to improve the survival probabilities of young individuals of chelonian species of conservation concern. The principle underlying this conservation intervention is that, presumably, by raising hatchling turtles in captivity to a considerably larger size than at hatch...

Thamnophis sirtalis (Common Garter Snake [CGS]) is a widely distributed North American colubrid snake. It is a habitat generalist associated with multiple types of terrestrial and aquatic environments. CGS use aquatic habitats predominantly for foraging. The objective of this research is to assess CGS abundance along the urban–rural gradient in sou...

Examination of fecal matter of Chrysemys picta (Eastern Painted Turtle) from Carver Pond (Bridgewater, MA) and Ice Pond (Middleborough, MA) showed evidence of aquatic seed dispersal. From August 2015 to October 2016, we caught 66 turtles (43 male, 23 female) and collected fecal samples while they were held in the lab fro a brief time. Among all ind...

Chrysemys picta (Eastern Painted Turtle) was investigated for aquatic seed dispersal capabilities over 2 seasons (2015– 2016). Turtles were captured from the Nemasket River (Bridgewater, MA) and brought to the lab to provide fecal samples. We caught a total of 75 individuals, including 20 recaptures, and 19 turtles (25%) yielded intact seeds in the...

Buffer zones are critical for ecological integrity and conservation of aquatic habitats. Riparian vegetation filters the surface run-off by retaining sediments and nutrients, and thereby minimize pollution in water bodies. Buffer zones provision foraging grounds, mating sites, and climatic refugia for many aquatic, semi-aquatic, and terrestrial wil...

The endemic lizard Dasia haliana of Sri Lanka is considered an arboreal skink. There is little information on the natural history and distribution of this species. To fill-in such knowledge gaps of this endemic skink, we conducted a multi-year survey within the dry and intermediate climatic zones of Sri Lanka and conducted investigations on habitat...

Jaffna peninsula is quite an unexplored area of Sri Lanka's lowland dryzone. We constructed a species checklist for all herpetofauna of this area based on, a short-term field survey, a comprehensive literature review, museum specimens, and observations made by field herpetologists. Based on 200 × 10 m belt transects, we surveyed herpetofauna both d...

The tropical island of Sri Lanka is rich in biodiversity and endemism, especially given the remarkable diversity of freshwater fish and herpetofauna: >90 freshwater fish (~55% endemism), >119 amphibians (~88% endemism), and >215 reptiles (~80% endemism). Despite the geographic disjunction, Sri Lanka and the Northeastern US share much in common: uni...